Beware of Christians

So, recently I watched a movie (by recently I mean I literally just finished it) called Beware of Christians. It's a documentary that follows four college guys-- Alex, Matt, Michael, and Will-- that travel to Europe to escape the routine of American Christianity. They go over seven different topics and talk about the way we see Jesus today, and, as Brennan Manning says, the reason why we as Christians are contributing to the cause of atheism.
     To relate this to Dangerous Wonder, the guys say we've lost our passion for Christ. It becomes an everyday routine, where we go to church and try to follow the Ten Commandments, just going through the motions. We are called to live differently, but a lot of the time look just like everybody else, with our worldly possessions and speech patterns. People today don't believe in Christ because we as Christians don't let our actions and words match. As one of the guys said, we say to beware of drugs, beware of worldly behaviors, beware of influences, but maybe we should beware of Christians, who say we follow Christ and think we have everything figured out, when in reality we don't, and we look just the same as the next guy.
     One of the topics in the movie was about media and entertainment. We definitely don't realize how much the media effects us, so it's great to have the Media Fast to show us what we never would have realized otherwise. And if by tomorrow morning, we're back to being of the world, then there was no real point in the Media Fast at all. I can't read Matt's mind, but I'm pretty sure the point of this is to grow closer to Christ and to realize, afterword, just how much the media got to us and how it changes us and stretches us farther away from God. All these things are temporary, but God is forever and always. God is enough.
     So maybe, today doesn't have to be the last day. Not for real. I know every single one of us will go back to what we missed over the month, but I don't think we should just shove all the Godly books and music away in the Media Fast closet until next year. I'm glad to have been part of the Media Fast this year. The temptation will always be there , but we can do all things through Christ, who gives us strength.
     Thank you everyone for supporting me this month-- See you next year! :)

4 more days

Four more days left and I can't wait to watch the movie Gods Not Dead. It's about the professor who tell his students there is no God and one student confronts him and has to prove the God is Not dead.... CANT WAIT!!!

Tag, You're It

Hello everybody! The media fast has been going great, and I'm determined to finish strong. It definitely has been hard, especially Thursday when Divergent came out....
     Reading Dangerous Wonder by Mike Yaconelli has totally helped this month. Never before have I looked at life that way-- having the faith of a child, to live with Daring Playfulness, Irresponsible Passion, and Naïve Grace. I had always thought of being Christian as being kind to others, helping them, and being Jesus to them. But of course, there are many people who don't think of Jesus as playful, exactly.... Ive been really experimenting this month about ways I can be more playful and have a more passionate faith than I ever have before, a faith that will make me want to get up and DO SOMETHING.
     I'm really glad Matt started that game of tag the group did. When before we would pass each other in the hallways at school, now we're waiting for them at their locker, hiding, so we can lunge at them and scream, "TAG, YOURE IT!" (Even if the game really just stayed at El Camino...). I think it gave us more of an idea of that playfulness-- I'm sure Jesus did things like that with his disciples all the time. Whoever said Christians are boring and joy-killers? We can prove them wrong with a playfulness and passion inside our hearts, so we can TRUELY be Jesus to them.
     Although, that game of tag definitely got me thinking over the week. If we were to play tag with Jesus, how would that go? I don't think that's a question we have to think hard about, because we already do play tag with Jesus. Maybe Jesus is always It, and he always chases after us, to tag us, to be with us, but we just continue to run away from him anytime he gets too close. How did it feel when your best friend ran away from you because you were It?
     And then when we are It, we reach to tag Jesus, but he's impossible to find. We look everywhere for him, and suddenly the game has become stressful, awful, dark and foreboding, stuck in something we cant get out of. It gets old fast. But we don't realize Jesus is right in front of us, holding our hand, telling us he's there, but we've become deaf, blind, unable to see what's right there. Sometimes he has to slap us in the face to get us to tag him.
     Maybe it's just best not to play tag with Jesus at all.... :P

Almost Over

The month of March has gone by much faster than i thought it would. I have been so busy with school, church, extracurriculars, and softball. I have been meaning to post on this a lot more than i have (which is none)
I have been spending any freetime i have doing homework or reading christian novels. This years media fast hasnt actually been a challenge for me, probably because I havent even had time to think about media at all. In the car i will play Christian music which really puts me in a spirit of worship, which helps me have a better day and a positive mind.
I would just like to thank every single person that has been sponsoring me and praying for me this month. It is sooo appreciated, and i am so excited to go on the Missions trip because of you guys..
God has reallly opened up my mind this month and i have been looking at things maybe a little differently than i usually would. Im ready for this month to be over though!
Thanks again
Megan Whitney

Exitement!

I am so excited to look back on how far I've gotten and how fun the media fast actually is when you look at it the right way.  I've replaced the time that I would usually play video games and watch tv to help out around the house more, and to read books more.  I read books by a really good christian author named Ted DeKKer, who writes mainly suspense/fantasy books.  I also just started reading the books by Paul such as Romans, 1Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, etc.  It feels a little bit like a different lifestyle without my video games, and I realize just how addicted I was to my video games.  I also finally got to meet one of my sponsors today.  It was nice to talk to him face to face instead of always on the phone. I think it might be harder this week because of the exitement.

Waves

Wow. This month has been crazy busy with school, and needles to say its been stressful. Like I said in my last post, I don't even know where the media would fit into everything. All this preoccupation with school, grades, sports, family, friends, etc all seems to come before my sole purpose of this month: dedicating to God. Even mornings, where I usually spend time in the word, have been cut short because of lack of sleep, sometimes this time is even completely forgotten.

Today everything just started to build up inside me so I went for a run when I got home to clear my head. I blasted my Christian music (of course) and didn't stop. While running, my lungs burning, I found that when I tried to focus and look at everything going on around me, I was distracted and it became harder to focus on breathing. When I got home and had a chance to cool down, I realized that God used this to show me something very important: He said focus on me not all the distractions going on around you. Yes, it is still going to hurt but when you focus on me I am in control. Its just like Peter walking on water. Though the waves are always tossing around you, trust in me.

Media fast half way

This is one of the hardest things I have done in a long time! Baseball keeps me very busy, but it doesn't consume all of my time. It's awesome that I get to spend extra time away from media, and focus my life directly on God! I can't wait to see what these last couple weeks have for me.

halfway there!

Sorry about the late post. I've just been so busy with all my theatre commitments and Beauty and The Beast rehearsals (which you should all come see!) 16 days down, 15 to go. almost exactly half. The first half hasnt been so bad, and im hoping the second half wont be either. Craig's message today was really powerful, and hit home a little bit, so I've spent all of the day so far, playing tag, hide and seek, etc (thanks, Matt) and dwelling on the allegories of the sermon. So far a pretty good day. Hope all goes well the rest of the month and I praise God my brother, Matt, arrived safely home from CBU. Praying for you!

Halfway

This is my second year doing the media fast so I knew what to expect.  I think this year giving up my music has been much harder than last year.  I love finding new Christian artists to listen to.  I love Britt Nicole, TobyMac, and Capital Kings.  They have great songs and even better messages in the songs.  I'm very unsure how I feel that the media fast is halfway over.  I am excited to watch my shows that have been recording all month.  I can't wait until VBS and the missions trip!

Giving Up Your Gleaming Sheep

"What if I told you that every sin you are struggling with, every discouragement you are dealing with, even the lack of purpose you're living with are because of idolatry?"
-- Kyle Idleman, gods at war

Recently I read the book by the author above, gods at war. The book deals with the subject of idolatry, and it touched my heart in a way I wasn't expecting.
     I admit, this year I was a whole lot more reluctant to do the media fast than I was last year. I had just started rereading the Harry Potter series again, and I wasn't ready to just let go of my books, among other things, for a month.
     This problem arose much earlier than February, however. I remember how excited I was to find out one of top ten favorite books, Divergent, was going to become a movie. My best friend had just started reading the trilogy, and she and I had plans to see the movie at midnight for my birthday, because it came out in March. It took a while for that problem to kick in, however. I had forgotten March was media fast month, which meant no movie for Jael and I.
     And when I realized that, it reminded me that the only TV show I had ever shown enough interest in, Once Upon a Time, was coming back in March.
     I told myself there was no way I could do it this year. It would be too much work. I was making idols of these things, and it took me too long to realize that. A conversation with my mom helped me understand.
     In our lives, we have dirty, helpless sheep that don't mean much to us, and then we have beautiful, award-winning, gleaming sheep that we put on our top shelf to admire. Remembering that love is sacrifice, and the incredible sacrifice Jesus made for us, I realized that in order to get closer to him, I first had to give up my gleaming sheep that was taking God's place. In my case, I would have to give up my books, my show, and my movie.
     This month, I am so happy to have made the right choice. I want -- need -- God to be the center of my life, and he can help me sacrifice that beautiful sheep for Him.
     Thank you all, and I pray everyone will have a great last half of the media fast!